Surly Girl Saloon announced rather abruptly that this would be their last week in operation. I stumbled in Wednesday Night not fully aware of the importance the Short North Bar’s Open Mic Night had to local comedy for the past 9 years.
  There were 60 comics signed up to pay their last respects.
  The comedy night will be moving next door to Barrel on High. But still, bars have different cultures that surround them. Chemistries and friendships between workers, patrons and owners all play into people’s personal histories and experiences with places they hang out.
  Surly Girls' closing comes on the heels of the Milk Bar shutting down in the Short North.

And of course Bernie's on campus announced that campus development may shut that spot down in the near future.
  I’m no comedian, so this made me think of  The Milk Bar Boutique and Surly Girl were transitional places that helped usher in the next era of hip hop after the 1999-2005 Bernie's Hip Hop Night ended.
  Daymon Dodson, Przm, True Skills, Pos 2, Numeric, Detox, Kenny Kim and a few others used to deejay in the back room in 05-06ish?
  Obviously, Pre-So What Wednesdays.
  Those deejay’s also brought in some renown beat diggers like Dante Carfagna and Mahssa Taghinia to play music. RJD2 did a secret party in the room above Surly. I’m not going to make this itemized or go into depth.
  You get my drift.
  The Columbus Music Co-Op did those Parking Lot Blowouts from 2005-2011 which had bands like the Gibson Brothers, Times New Viking, Eye, Sweatheart, Cheater Slicks and a zillion other groups play in the parking area between Michael’s Goody Boy and Surly Girl.
  Of course Milk Bar spawned Get Right, O-Gee as well as hosted parties with Fly Union, Lebron, Steve Aoki and so on and so forth.
  I’m not saying these were the only places post Bernie's: Bourbon Street, Hi-5, Skully’s, the Cove, Carabar and several other spots were important.
  But my brain simplified things for the sake of fitting the nostalgia in this particular.
  Which is something that I normally don’t think about when I go to Surly Girl to get tacos.

I think it could be said that along with Skully’s, Little Brothers, Bodega, Magnolia Thunderpussy, Sole Classics, Northstar and Roots Records both the Milk Bar and Surly helped spawn a major transition in the development of the Short North period.
  The rumor is that Surly Girl will be a sports bar. The irony is that the location was a sports bar before Surly Girl opened 10 years ago.
  So I sat in the front room for the bulk of the evening listening to rap and talking like a drunk idiot periodically checking out the comics who were on their own nostalgia plan.
  The comedy night’s host, Sean Somerville, ended the evening with a story about watching his wife give birth.
  At first, it was fitting; the host of a long running event talking about growing with a bar.
  But he managed to put a little shock into it by finishing up with the punchline, “the room smelled like my wife’s pussy.”
  I’m for reproductive freedom as much as the next guy. I just wouldn’t know how to make a joke about it, so I was impressed.
  I am sure it was bittersweet to laugh while a place that affected many people’s lives was about to close.
  However, the evening was fun.